Final bark for ordinance may be at meeting

Costa Mesa police say the city’s new barking dog ordinance, which will go before the City Council for a third and possibly final time Tuesday, will reduce the amount of calls to animal control and give peeved homeowners some recourse against annoying pets.

The council voted 3-2 at its last meeting in favor of the ordinance, which would give police and animal control officers the ability to issue citations from $200 to $400 to residents whose dogs bark for more than 30 minutes at a time. Although they said they agreed an ordinance was needed, Councilwomen Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon voted against the ordinance because they thought the fines were exorbitant.

Before the new dog barking ordinance came along, Costa Mesa really had no way of prosecuting the owners of offending animals, said Sgt. Bryan Glass, who supervises the animal control department. Police could issue criminal charges for disturbing the peace, but the district attorney would just throw them out, saying that barking dogs were a civil matter that should be handled through other channels like mediation.

This led to continuous calls from the same people, frustrated that they had no way to punish their neighbors for disturbing them, according to Glass.

“The experience that other agencies have had with this ordinance is that it has decreased the number of calls and complaints,” Glass said.

Under the new law, a single resident can complain about an excessively barking dog and animal control will come and verbally warn the owner. Another call and a written warning will be issued, giving the dog owner 10 days to fix the problem. If the problem is not remedied, then the owner will be issued a citation.

The new system revolves around bothered neighbors compiling their own evidence of an illegal dog disturbance because animal control officers would have a hard time witnessing 30 minutes of straight barking.

“We will be documenting anything we see or we hear, but when we come out there, we might not hear the dog barking,” Glass said.

Even if the police don’t see any evidence of a violation during their visits to a house, a citation can still be issued and upheld on the word of the neighbors, Glass said. This is why it is helpful for those who witness excessive barking to tape or video-record the incident.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.